


Broken Glass

by Ren (mizdarknezz3)



Series: Elena Taski's Stories [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Chains, Child Soldiers, Flashbacks, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Misunderstandings, Other, Past Child Abuse, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, Whipping, zuko seems like an ass in this fic but hes not i promise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:33:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26619748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mizdarknezz3/pseuds/Ren
Summary: Elena takes the fake fight at the Boiling Rock too far and ends up in chains. Luckily she gets out and has a needed talk with a former Prince.
Relationships: Sokka/OC/Zuko
Series: Elena Taski's Stories [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1927720





	Broken Glass

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This story is a future scene from my story The Taski Way that was going to happen in the story but now it'll be something else. So I thought I'd just post this here by itself in case it interests anybody. 
> 
> For a little context here's a brief summary of the important bits of The Taski Way. Skip this paragraph if you don't want spoilers to the story since it's not posted yet. Elena was a fire nation solider that adored and worked with Zuko to capture the avatar, however after they escape the north pole they were separated from Iroh and Zuko goes to search for him leaving Elena behind. Because of Zuko's actions as the blue spirit and Iroh's actions at the North Pole all three of them are declared traitors, which Elena finds out the hard way through a battle with Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee. She barely escapes with her life with the Gaang. A lot of stuff happens but the important part that is referenced often in this story without being explained is that Elena takes it as a personal betrayal when Zuko joins with Azula in the Earth Kingdom. So in short she feels abandoned and betrayed by Zuko, hence why she's so negative about him in the story. Zuko's not a bad guy or anything, he just made some mistakes and is kind of oblivious. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this! Let me know if I need to tag for anything else please, I want everyone to stay safe.

It was supposed to be a fake fight, Elena knew that, but she couldn't help but let some of her emotions slip in. Zuko had left her behind, betrayed her and her friends. Yes she had fought for him to join the group but only because of Toph's input and the new information he could offer. It was pure gain. It didn't matter what Katara thought, because in all honesty she was furious with him. She was hurt and every day he said nothing about it, which made it worse. He had apologized to the others, it seemed he forgot about Elena again. She wasn't a forgettable person, she understood that now. She should have before. She had her wanted poster plastered around the world, her family name was taught in history classes and any decent member of the fire nation military should have heard of her. At the very least if her strength did not leave an impression her brightly colored hair should. But no, the first person's attention she had ever desperately wanted to gain seemed unable to give her attention. Maybe she was selfish for taking it so personally but believing feelings are wrong don't make them go away. In fact it just adds guilt which just made her more frustrated. 

All of this came to a head when his shot of flame came a little too close for their fake fight. The fact that the fight had her as the pushed one arguing against the jerk who pushed her seemed fitting. She glowered at him and he gave a little apologetic shrug. The other prisoners were staring at her like she was a weakling. Sokka noticed her expression and shook his head. The guards were heading down, but not rushing. She wanted to scream.

"You dare throw your pathetic flame in my direction? If you're going to hit me actually put something into it! If I'm going against a Prince I want it to feel like it!" She shouted hard letting her throat feel like it was tearing and blasting blue fire at him that he had to roll to get away from. He looked at her wide eyed for a moment and she stared right back glaring. Her stance had shifted to one ready for fighting. He slowly stood up and was grabbed by guards, they tried to grab her and she elbowed one in the nose as she pulled away. She was tired of people underestimating her all the time. She pushed forward and was surrounded. It reminded her of a technique Iroh taught her and she got on one toe and spun herself in a circle, her outer leg kicking out flame while flame erupted from her mouth. The guards fell back slightly and another round came, she kicked, punched, bit, and bent flame for almost twenty minutes. She definitely caused a riot which was probably awkward for Sokka but she didn't really care. Talking about this anger never helped and he never got better and all the people around her screaming weak with their eyes drove her insane. If they had started the fake fight outside she would have escaped alone there. There would be more open air to move through and get breathing space. As it was she was inside and they were all on top of her. It was bound to happen at some point, someone managed to get a blow to the back of her head and the world was black before she hit the ground.

* * *

She should have expected that they wouldn't have put her in the cooler. She had made it pretty clear that she could blow open a stupid door. Instead she was in a cell, hanging from chains on the ceiling while her feet were being pulled apart by another set of chains. There was a rubber gag in her mouth. She also noticed that she was only in her underwear. Well she seemed to be in more trouble than she had imagined. Fortunately (although her friends would argue) she had been trained for this. She could hang for a week. Or if it were desperate she could burn her feet and dislocate her arm and melt the chains. Then she could break the door down by melting the hinges. But she should probably wait for Sokka. Hopefully she hadn't gotten him caught. She could have ruined everything. Why did she always do this?! She would get pissed and break everything around her. She deserved whatever they were going to do with her. She wouldn't blame them if they didn't break her out. She was so stupid! This is why she was always telling the others how much she hated emotions. 

The door creaked open and she looked at the wrinkled brown haired man. She didn't recognize him as anything but the warden, but she didn't care much about the boiling rock either. A lot of her crew had been there or heading there before they were in her crew, but they didn't like to talk about it. She hadn't pushed it. The man had white straight teeth he was showing off in a grim sneer. 

"I told you before that there was no escaping from here. I was angry before since you were the one who scared my niece but now you've injured ten of my guards." He was circling around her, while another guard came in, in full armor carrying a nine tailed whip. Elena's mind flashed to when she was six. Hanging in chains in the center of the room as her mother hit her over and over not stopping until Elena stopped making noise. She insisted Elena had to be silent. She’d hang there all day. Then at night Father and one of the crew, a pale man with bulging muscles and brown hair. He had a thin beard. He would go around to her back while her father would stand back at first. He would tell her to either be silent or kill the man. She couldn't kill someone, especially one who was supposed to be like family. Even though what he did hurt, and made her feel dirty. Then Father would go for her front and tell her to be silent. She didn't like what they did. It hurt, it made her nauseous. But if she said anything they made it hurt worse, and last longer. She wasn't that sad when she found out that that crew member died during the assassins attack.

She was so lost in memory that she hadn't even registered that the pain from the memories were not fake, she was being whipped again. Her body jerked and drool leaked from the gag, but she kept quiet. Her mind helpfully reminded her that she deserved this. The Warden seemed disappointed at her lack of reaction, but he stood in wait.

Her back was bleeding heavily by the time they gave up. Her head hung low and she struggled to breathe without choking on her own spit. She wasn't sure how long they had been gone, but she was sure they would be coming back. Thus when the door creaked open again she didn't bother lifting her head.

"Oh no- Elena are you okay?" She recognized Sokka's panicked whisper and, for him, looked up and nodded. It took more energy than she expected. He took off his helmet and went around her only to sharply inhale. "Why did you do that?" He asked as if she could answer him. He took out the gag and she stole as much air as she could, which resulted in heavy coughing. Sokka came back to her front and she could see him wince.

"I wasn't thinking, he just made me so angry... I almost ruined everything. I'm sorry," Sokka had helped a lot with encouraging her to voice her thoughts. She found it easiest to do with him, the others weren't as patient with her. They shouldn't have to be patient. However he still was.

"The rest of us are fine, Zuko was able to get the screws out. We should be out soon, we'll figure out how to get you out." Sokka was confident, his face fierce as he spoke and he nodded to himself. Elena moved her jaw up and down and swallowed the spit she could get to water her throat.

"Give me time and get rid of the guard in front of the door and I can break out of these chains." He looked into her eyes and unlike the rest of the men he didn't look at her with doubt, he knew that she wasn't weak. Instead he seemed more downcast, like the fact that she knew she could do that hurt him. A slew of emotions pushed forward at that but those things had caused enough problems so she pushed them as far down as they could go.

"We'll get you out soon."

* * *

In average avatar fashion they did not get her out soon. In fact she had two more whipping sessions, the last one she managed to choke herself badly and they took off the gag assuming her tears meant she was going to break soon. Instead she kept hacking until thick spit came out. Not wanting the gag put back on she held off on spitting flame at them and they thankfully didn't put it back on. They also cauterized her back, which was good because she was having a hard time staying conscious. Pain and memories left her arms feeling numb. If she did fall asleep she was guaranteed to have a nightmare which would be incredibly weak and shameful no matter what Sokka said.

She wasn't sure why but she heard the guard outside her door start running and then the door open. Elena immediately went into action sending out as hot a flame from her feet as she could and pulling until the chains came off. Then she curled forward and bit down hard to hold in a scream as her back split open and cracked in protest. She had forgotten how debilitating the pain was. It took longer than she expected as she swung her feet up to burn the chains holding her arm. Blood ran down her back and she ignored the tears making their way down her face. She couldn't help it. Eventually she fell to the floor and shrieked with her mouth closed as she landed on her side. It took a full minute before she could wobbly stand up and start making her way out. She would find Sokka and Zuko and they would get out. 

Outside there was a riot. Everyone was fighting, fire was being thrown between punches and Elena struggled to pick out her friend(s?) from the crowd. Once she found them she pushed her way through, burning anyone who got in her way. She saw Zuko and waved her hand to catch his attention. He looked at her, they made eye contact, and he ran off somewhere else. She wanted to stab him. Moving was hard, fighting her way through the crowd hurt. There were shackles around her arms and legs and blood dripping off her. But yet, he couldn't be bothered to help. She moved as fast as her body allowed and made it to the cart only to spot Azula attacking them and the Warden inside yelling for them to cut the line. Also some older water tribe guy but he was the least of her concerns. With pain she shot fire at Azula and kicked the warden in the groin. If she stepped on his groin again while she was throwing flame, no one mentioned it. They made it out safe at least. The important people were unharmed.

* * *

Sokka, Suki, that random fire nation prisoner they'd taken with them, and the water tribe man that Elena had quickly realized was Sokka's father didn't mention her mistake. In fact, Sokka and Suki just helped wipe up her back. Those two along with Sokka's father were easily able to keep a conversation going which helped give Elena's mind some relaxation time. Not sleep, because that would result in a definite nightmare and she didn't need to make that great impression on these people. She'd already proved that she was stupid to these people. 

Zuko on the other hand sat furthest away from her and he kept glaring, as if he was mad at her. He did get grabbed pretty roughly by the guards and she had almost gotten him locked in a previously inescapable prison. However he still hadn't apologized to her about betraying her- again. And while they were escaping he hadn't even tried to help her. Sokka had asked about her injuries, he’d tried to keep her from flinging fire at Azula since she had to bend and twist halfway out the window on unsteady legs that had chains around the ankle. Suki had been working on getting the shackles off, but she wasn’t having much luck. Elena didn't really care, Toph could probably get them off and Katara could heal her back. Maybe they'd say she deserved it for being so reckless. She wouldn't disagree, but they weren't really a punishment sort of group. They were a more sort of yell for a while and then forget about it. Or treat her like a piece of glass and tiptoe around her carefully because if they were too much she’d shatter. She hated it, but at this point it was pretty clear that was what she was. Zuko probably wasn't used to pieces of glass, especially ones that were advertised as strong commanders. Maybe she had destroyed the image he had of her as a boring, forgettable soldier, or broken the image of her as a forgettable earth kingdom citizen and he wanted them back. Well he couldn't have them, Elena couldn't even have them!

She ignored his glares, and though she tried to relax her mind it decided torturing her was more fun. She tried to listen to the light conversation around her but it all was fuzzy. When they landed she didn't waste time getting off Appa and began heading to her room. She wanted to be alone for a few minutes at least, she could handle the pain and the chains but her thoughts were overwhelming. She swore she wasn't falling asleep since she was upright but she kept hearing her mother's voice behind her. Sometimes out of the corner of her eye she could see the chains on her arm connected to a steel wall. The ground seemed to be swaying. But people seemed determined to bother her.

"Elena!" Sokka and Zuko both called and she turned around to face them, ignoring how dizzy that made her. Sokka was running to catch up to her and gently gripped her arm as if to keep her stable. His light blue eyes looked deep into her own orange irises, and she got the feeling he was looking for something. She wasn't sure what. Zuko had decided to stomp over, and took a moment to catch up. He was still glowering and his muscles were tense. For some reason her mind took two things away from this, his eyes reminded her of her father, and that she liked his hair surrounding his face better than the pony tail. Angry eyes flashed in her head and instead of Zuko there was a tall man with shoulder length hair up in a small bun. The shine of an orange and gold ornament glinted in the only stream of light in the room. But she was outside? She blinked hard and Zuko was standing in front of her, Sokka was touching her.

"Can I talk to you in private Elena?" Zuko asked grumpily, and Sokka's grip tightened slightly.

"She needs to go to Katara first, and then Toph to help get these chains off." Sokka spat back with a venom Elena hadn't expected. The two had been getting along before. Zuko blinked and his expression turned to one of confusion.

"I thought you and your girlfriend patched it up?" His question made Elena's stomach twist but she didn't know why. It made her want to pull away from Sokka, but she didn't, because it was helping keep her steady. 

"Some simple wiping of blood and bandaging aren't enough to help heal hours of whipping!" Sokka shouted making it clear he thought the assumption Zuko made was stupid. The others were off Appa and making their way over. Elena sighed and tugged Sokka to signal to turn around. He looked at her and his anger dissipated and his face became soft. He helped guide her along, turning their backs to Zuko. There was a sharp intake of breath and Elena held back a laugh. He was always completely oblivious to her wasn't he? But Sokka wasn't.

They walked on in silence, the world was still swaying and the chains were an added weight making it harder to move. Sometimes she felt like her steps were just jerking chains. Every time they went in the shadows she felt like she was in a dark cell. Steel walls. On a boat. Hanging while her mother circled around her, bright red hair falling past her shoulders as she raised the whip again and again. Warm blood dripping down her back.

"Elena! Sokka! What happened?!" Katara's voice shocked her out of her mind and she was back outside. Her back had started bleeding again, Sokka was staring at her with concern plastered on his face. She sat down and he sat down with her. They were at the fountain. Katara sat on her other side and began her healing. It was cool and soothing. Elena sighed and let her head fall forward. 

"That doesn't seem very comfortable," Sokka commented and she looked at him. She was tired enough that her eyes ached and she could feel the skin under them hanging. His face was slightly red and a sudden worrying thought that he was becoming sick hit her. She reached with her arm that he wasn't holding and put her hand on his forehead, he was warm. He seemed to get redder and warmer.

"Uh Elena, what are you doing?" Sokka asked, no longer looking at her face. 

"You're all red, I'm checking to see if you got a fever in that place." As she explained her speech slurred together and the contact seemed to burn. Not the normal burn of touch but actual burn, as if she was touching flame. The light outside was bright and the tan hand holding onto her seemed pale and larger and had flame erupting from it as father told her that she had failed. She shook her head and pulled her hands away. She knew that hanging in chains would trigger memories of the past but she didn't realize how bad it was. Katara was still hard at work on her back, although Elena doubted that she would be able to heal it entirely. There was significant damage. She wondered if it would heal faster or slower since her back had experienced this kind of trauma before multiple times. 

"Elena? Are you okay?" Sokka asked, leaning to be in front of her but not touching her. He kept looking back to his sister but Elena didn't want to twist to see Katara's expression.

"To be honest, I have been better." She responded trying to not sound too harsh. 

"Is it your back or something else?" He questioned and despite having a hard time keeping her grip on reality a smile tugged at the corner of her lips. He had figured out that she didn't like to talk much when getting upset so he had come up with a number system. There were two options, she’d lift her finger for whichever it was and he would continue presenting two options. She put up two fingers while her other hand massaged her temple. "Is it Zuko or something else?" She raised two fingers again. It had been Zuko earlier but now he was the least of her concerns. It took Sokka awhile before he could come up with the next options. "Is it your parents or something else?" He cringed back as he said it and fidgeted in place. Elena felt Katara's hands freeze for a moment. Elena huffed out her nose, her shoulders tense before begrudgingly raising a one. She knew they didn't like her parents. This would add fuel to that fire, but explaining would probably make it easier to deal with? Or at least hopefully prepare them for what was trying to happen. What happened wasn't something to be ashamed of, but her reaction was. She took a deep breath.

"I keep seeing my parents, and we're back home. But during different training sessions. Most of the ones I keep seeing involved me being in chains. It's really disorienting." Sokka's face darkened as she spoke before he forced it into a natural expression.

"I'll go find Toph to help get you out." Sokka responded, getting up and walking away. The sunlight didn't seem as warm anymore. Katara continued to work. She apparently didn't have much to say. Elena was grateful.

Toph came and made a few quips as she worked to get the chains off. Katara finished healing her back as much as she could then wrapped her in bandages. She could put some real clothes on now so she was allowed to retire to her room. She stayed there the rest of the day, ignoring knocks and skipping meals. She slept and had nightmares but managed to not scream in her sleep. In the dead of night she gave up on sleeping and left her room to sit outside and look at the sky. To Elena's annoyance a certain ex Prince came out to sit next to her. He didn’t speak at first, just sat beside her. He wasn’t looking at her for the most part, he would switch between staring at the sky with her and staring at the ground. Eventually he became very fidgety, opening and closing his hands over and over and shifting positions. She gave him time to get it out, she wasn’t starting any conversations anyway. She wanted it to stay quiet.

“Why did you do it?” He shouted the question, it gave her an earache. He sat with his knees up and his hands supporting him at his sides. She didn’t turn to face him, and sighed through her nose.

“I’m assuming you mean firebending during the fight? I lost control of my emotions, again. It’s was stupid mistake that almost ruined the mission. It won’t happen again.” Except that she couldn’t guarantee that because it kept happening, and she didn’t know how to stop it. How to make all the raging feelings go away. She could push them down for sometime but then they would spew like a volcano, destroying everything around her. 

“I understand that part, but, why were you so angry?” He asked, running a hand through his hair. There were those pesky feelings again, trying to burn through her veins and override her mind. She was tired, but in control. She had had her chance to recharge, they wouldn’t take over her again. But holding it all in kept the fire centered in her chest and it scorched her. Sokka told her it didn’t have to be like this, but she didn’t know how to change. But she really did want to.

“You almost hit me, and the other prisoners were looking at me like I was weak,” she answered, she wasn’t going to lie but she didn’t really want to spell it out for him what he had done wrong. Or, what she felt was wrong, she knew she made way too big of a deal over it. If she told him she attacked him because she felt he didn’t care about her she’d sound so weak, and stupid. Why would you attack someone if you want them to care about you? Her emotions made her act backwards. 

“They were just watching the fight, and what does it matter what some prisoners think?” Zuko responded and she wanted to laugh. He would get so angry in the past if anyone looked at him wrong, if it mattered to him why wouldn’t it matter to her? 

“It doesn’t in the end but at the time it’s aggravating,” that was an understatement. It was infuriating, it made her want to tear out her hair and scream until her teeth tingled. She had spent her entire life working on being strong. Even with the avatar’s group she had never stopped trying to improve her abilities. Weak people couldn’t do anything except depend on others and she refused to be like that. She had done so much throughout her life and even if it wasn’t good, she still had the strength to do it. She put in time and sweat, her blood and tears into becoming one of the fire nation’s prized fighters. She studied not only bending but swords and daggers, short bows and longbows, and many other weapons. But because of her body people ignored everything she had done and viewed her as weak. Be it her scars, her short stature, and sometimes the fact that she was a girl was used against her. 

“But that couldn’t have been all of it!” Zuko’s response took her off guard enough to finally look at him. He was facing her and his eyes screaming confusion. They were looking at her as if they were searching for the answer to his question, as if her skin would have the answers printed, but all they had were scars, and he didn’t want to know their story, he had made that clear.

“Just because I argued for you to be in the group doesn’t mean I forgive you, for any of it. You can treat the others as nicely as you please and I’ll still tell them to stop treating you with open hostility but that’s because it’s best for us. Having you on the team would be another fighter, another teacher, and a chance for recent information. I understand all of this, so I do things to keep you here, but you have hurt me over and over again and don’t even notice. You haven’t even apologized personally to me, and to make it worse I have to tell you all of this, which will diminish anything you say next.” She fully explained keeping eye contact. She wanted to go back to her room and stare at the ceiling for the next fifteen hours. She wanted to be able to get restful sleep. She didn’t want to deal with emotions any more. He was silent after she spoke, he lowered his head for a moment and his hair blocked his eyes from her. His mouth was in a thin line. She had always liked the angles of his face and this view she had showed them off. 

“I thought you didn’t want me to notice,” he mumbled and she stared at him. “You were raised in an environment like mine, and whenever something is wrong with me I don’t want others to notice because my Father said asking for help was weak. I thought that you felt the same way, so I ignored it to not upset you further,” he went on and she actually understood. Some part of her was angry when other people noticed she was hurt, but it was always anger at herself. It was still there, although not as strong. In a way Zuko had been trying to be kind, because he was in the most similar situation as her. “For what it’s worth though, I am sorry. I didn’t want to hurt you,” and despite all her fears of bitterness overriding her other feelings at hearing that, she was wrong. She mainly felt relief soothing the fire, cooling it to a dull simmer. She hadn’t realized that she had been worried that it was all on purpose until he assured her it wasn’t. “Sokka said you had been whipped?” Zuko suddenly asked out of nowhere. She nodded, pushing away memories. “How were you able to get out of there then? When I saw you on your own I thought they had just put you in a special cooler.” She grimaced and looked at her feet. She hadn’t told Katara about the burns there because she didn’t want to wear the girl out. 

“I pointed my feet and shot a stream of blue flame at the chains while pulling up melting them, then I twisted my body up and shot flame for a while at the chains holding my arms until they pulled apart. The door was already open and the guard had run off to help with the riot.” She explained and enjoyed his wide eyes. She smiled at him, it was a small smile but she was doing her best.

“How can you think you're weak when you pull things like that off?” He asked and her smile fell.

“I don’t think I’m weak. That’s a problem other people see me as.” She bit back. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to try to stay under control. 

“We get angry because we are insecure, that’s what Uncle told me…” Zuko trailed off and a pang of longing seemed to go through both of them. Elena missed Iroh, but she didn’t dare ask about him. The conversation died there, and Elena went back to staring at the stars, with some food for thought that wouldn’t burn her like the rest of her thoughts tried. At least she felt a little warmer, and Zuko didn’t leave her, instead they actually walked to breakfast together.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading I hope you enjoyed! Let me know what you thought below, have a great day!


End file.
